The Global Wellness Summit
(GWS) has announced that
landscape-designer-turnedarchitect Bill Bensley will
deliver a keynote speech
on hospitality design and
sustainability at this year’s
summit in Hong Kong.
Bensley’s keynote will
challenge delegates to rethink
how hotels and resorts are
designed and built, by posing
questions he believes that the
conscientious traveller of the
future will be asking, such Bensley will deliver a keynote on sustainability in hotel design
as: Does this hotel respect its
environment? Does it respect the people that
Bensley has worked on a number of unique
engage with it? Does the hotel add in any way projects across the globe, including the awardto the community?
winning Four Season Tented Camp in the
“If we ask these questions regularly, hoteliers Golden Triangle, Thailand.
and developers will be forced to answer,”
Recently, he launched his own luxury
Bensley said. “Our fragile environments walk boutique hotel group, which includes Shinta
a tightrope to a healthy future – let’s ask those Mani Wild, a luxe-jungle escape located above
questions now before its too late. Conservation a waterfall in Cambodia.
of the world’s wild places matter.”
Details: http://lei.sr/g6j9y_S

Lefay Resort to open with large spa

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Destination spa Lefay has
opened its second luxury
eco spa resort in the Italian
Dolomites on 1 August.
Located in the ski area
of Madonna di Campiglio,
Lefay Resort & Spa Dolomiti
features 88 suites and 22
branded residences, as well
as a 5,000sq m Lefay spa –
one of the largest spas in the
Alpine region.
“We don’t build hotels – we
build spa hotels,” said Alcide
Leali, managing director of
Lefay Resorts. “Spa is always
the core of our properties.”
The spa at the Lefay Dolomiti eco resort covers an area of 5,000sq m
Lefay owns and operates a
well-respected spa hotel in Lake Garda, Italy, in the next 10-20 years,” says Leali. “Our
and has also announced plans for a third resort expectation is that the spa will grow.”
in Tuscany. Leali said within the next ten years,
Lefay’s wellness method, which combines
he hopes to have five properties in total, and is classical Chinese medicine with modern
looking at branded locations with partners in Western techniques, will be used across the
Switzerland and Austria to help position Lefay spa, with signature energy treatments that aim
as the “European leader in spa resorts”.
to rebalance and rejuvenate the body and mind
The spa at Lefay Dolomiti is 30 per cent by stimulating the classical Chinese meridians
bigger than the Lake Garda location – to activate the energy systems.
5,000sq m versus 3,800sq m – resulting in
The resort has been designed by architect
50sq m of spa per key. “We wanted to enter Hugo Demetz, whose design “blends the hotel
the market with a property that is not just into the surrounding landscape”.
a leader today, but that will still be a leader Details: http://lei.sr/y2M6u_S